Unlock 1.0: Essential shopping rebounds fastest to pre-lockdown levels

With Unlock 1 entering its fourth week, power generation numbers and goods carried by the Railways are showing signs of the economy returning to some sort of normalcy. Essential shopping activities, too, are hovering around pre-lockdown levels, shows another set of numbers from weekly economic indicators tracked by Business Standard. 

The latest weekly figures show power generation is close to 2019 levels as industries gradually reopen.  

The Railways showed around 5 per cent decline in the quantity of goods it carried for the week ended Saturday, compared to the same period last year. This is better than last week when goods transported were down by a tenth. The money the Railways earned from carrying goods is down around 15 per cent, but better than the 22.8 per cent dip in the preceding week. 

The location data that search engine Google tracks also shows places which have seen the sharpest recovery in visits are those for essential shopping, such as groceries and pharmacies. Google’s mobility report shows average workplace visits, too, have improved. 

The difference over pre-lockdown levels is now under 30 per cent as of June 14, based on a seven-day rolling average.

The weekly data helps capture the fast-changing situation on the ground ahead of the macroeconomic data, such as gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, which are often released with a lag. Other indicators also show varying signs of a revival.